


Survive Another Night

by brazenedMinstrel



Category: Warcraft - All Media Types, World of Warcraft
Genre: And the things that come with it, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Withering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 05:38:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18910660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brazenedMinstrel/pseuds/brazenedMinstrel
Summary: Withering had many horrible aspects. The cold was one of the worst. A body that could barely keep itself warm, and the freezing nights in the underground sanctuary came unrelentingly. Once every two days or so, Valtrois didn’t dare to keep count, when she was scraping the very bottom of her mana reserves, everything intensified tenfold, driving her to the very edge of unconsciousness until the outlander brought a precious few mana crystals to Shal’aran.(Thalyssra and valtrois keeping each other warm on one of the first nights in shal’aran.)Mixed with my headcanons about withering, and just the need to vent a bit and write some angst and pain. I also needed practice with writing nightborne since I’m planning to write a long fic about them some day.





	Survive Another Night

Withering had many horrible aspects. The cold was one of the worst. A body that could barely keep itself warm, and the freezing nights in the underground sanctuary came unrelentingly. Once every two days or so, Valtrois didn’t dare to keep count, when she was scraping the very bottom of her mana reserves, everything intensified tenfold, driving her to the very edge of unconsciousness until the outlander brought a precious few mana crystals to Shal’aran.

 

The pain hadn't even started. Dulling, slow stabs that started in her lower body and progressed upwards until her entire form was wracked with spasms. Thalyssra had been stabbed around where the pain usually begun. But even the fate of the First Arcanist could not distract Valtrois for long. She knew, with what little of her mind had not faded into the madness of the moment, that these fits were different for everyone. Oculeth had it relatively easy, he started mumbling gibberish under his breath and shivered in intervals. Thalyssra mostly disassociated, retreating to a corner of the sanctuary and shuddering violently until the momentary weakness dimmed. She was in pain too, and never refused a calming touch. They all felt the cold, even moreso when the withering gained on them. Trying to preserve what precious mana they possessed, no one had cast a fire. Maybe the outlander could do that, when they returned.

 

Truthfully, Valtrois did not quite know where she had ended up. Perhaps she had found her way down the winding stairs and to the leyline grid. Or maybe she was closer to the entrance of Shal’aran than she knew. Everything from the point where she had felt the first trembles in her hands, and subsequently abandoned her work of sketching a plan to draw more mana to the sanctuary, was a blur. Though she was certain that she had either climbed or descended some form of stairs, before collapsing in a heap. The cold was slowly eating its way through her, whittling her mind down further with each passing minute. She thought to hear footsteps draw near, but it could just as well be her mind messing with her.

 

No, there was really something walking towards her. A vague form that she could only just discern when prying her eyes open on a tiny slit.

 

‘I found her. She’s here, don’t fret.’

 

Thalyssra’s soothing voice reached her tired ears. Ears that had been folded into her neck and trembled since the withering had overwhelmed her a few minutes ago. Or had it been a few hours already?

 

‘The withering process is gaining on her…’

 

A soft tap on the ground that could only be Thalyssra’s staff. ‘Tell the outlander that they must gather more crystals, and make haste. This is the last thing we need right now.’

 

With a quiet thump, Thalyssra knelt next to Valtrois. The semi-conscious nightborne reached out, searching in the space besides her with a trembling hand until she grabbed hold of the First Arcanist’s bony fingers. They gave a reassuring squeeze.

 

‘C-cold…’ Valtrois murmured, before another violent shiver took her. She was dimly aware that she was making pained noises with every rushed breath.

 

‘Stay put,’ Thalyssra said. ‘I will be back shortly.’

 

Indeed, the next thing Valtrois became aware of was being moved by the other elf. In the moments that Thalyssra was not having the same troubles as she suffered from now, the First Arcanist was surprisingly strong. Stronger than most high-ranking mages. Thus she was easily able to prop the weakened elf against a wall in a sitting position, before seating herself next to her and draping a blanket over the both of them.

 

~~~~~

 

Valtrois trembled against her. The normally snooty Arcanist, reduced to a shivering mess. It broke Thalyssra’s heart to see her like this. She wound an arm behind Valtrois’ back, pulling them closer together. Touch, as she knew all too well herself, was an important thing when a nightfallen is crippled by a surge of the effects of withering. It anchored the mind, preventing it from drifting too far into madness. As she had observed on earlier occasions, Valtrois’ episodes of relapse brought on more physical pain than her own. The younger Arcanist also seemed to have less tortuous visions during them.

 

‘Thalyssra!’ Oculeth called from the top of the stairway. ‘It is getting dark, perhaps you ought to get rest.’

 

‘Feel free to,’ she answered. ‘I fear I cannot move her all the way up the stairs. It would not be comfortable… not while she is in this state.’  

 

‘Oh… well, is there anything I can do for the both of you?’

 

Thalyssra sighed. All things considered, it would be wiser to move Valtrois to the upstairs, where they were closer to their resources. She had no doubts that carrying her would be easy, as light as she had become. But moving someone in the clutches of the withering was jarring for the nightfallen in question. Painful even, since their weakened muscles needed rest and relaxation more than anything. And warmth, which was difficult to come across in all parts of Shal’aran, especially at night. She would have to stay by the grid, until either the outlander returned with a source of mana or the withering had released Valtrois from its terrible grasp.

 

‘Wake us as soon as the outlander has returned,’ she said to Oculeth. ‘I shall stay here for the night.’

 

‘I will. _Ru-shanna,_ Thalyssra,’ Oculeth answered, while his footfalls disappeared into the rest of the sanctuary.

 

 _Ru-shanna._ Survive. It was both a greeting and a farewell that they all had grown far too accustomed to. Valtrois laid her head onto Thalyssra’s shoulder, breathing shakily against her neck. She trembled, her muscles rigid and shaking.

 

‘Relax,’ the First Arcanist murmured, tracing over Valtrois’ stomach and every protruding rib. ‘Tensing yourself will not dim the pain.’

 

Another thing that she knew from experience. Even though Valtrois had told her to “stop being so stupid! You’re going to choke to death if you think you can stop the pain by bracing every single muscle against it!”, the sentiment had been much the same. Thalyssra shivered when she thought back to that particularly unpleasant experience where both Oculeth and Valtrois had, near physically, dragged her through a rough night. She had only barely succeeded in keeping herself from descending into the madness that was bound to take all who withered.

 

To her touch, the other nightfallen slackened, leaning further into it. She pried her eyes open, still filled with pain. Then she closed them again, murmuring in stuttered Shalassian:

 

‘ _E-erana… dora…’_

 

‘There is no need to thank me.’

 

Hushing the trembling elf to be quiet and preserve her energy, Thalyssra sighed as the soft hum of the grid in front of them was the only sound in the otherwise silent sanctum. Valtrois’ pained breaths filled that silence, as the nightfallen grasped Thalyssra’s shoulder with a hand that was more bone than flesh, clinging to the First Arcanist like her life depended on it. And it very well might have.

 

While Thalyssra tried her best to keep her eyes open and look out for any kind of danger, sleep eventually took her. While she had never thought to be able to sleep while sitting against a wall, especially not in her Kaldorei days, she found herself succumbing to slumber more easily than she had hoped. It was even a surprisingly peaceful sleep.

 

The thing that woke her shook her right back into reality, however. Valtrois cried out, twisting her body and falling sideways, sprawled over Thalyssra’s lap. Her chest heaved with deep, ragged breaths. At least she seemed somewhat more conscious. Mumbling apologies, she pushed herself upright, managing to work herself off Thalyssra’s legs before collapsing with a pained sigh. Now entirely uncovered by the blanket, she drew her knees up to her chest and shivered.

 

Slowly shaking her head, Thalyssra laid down behind her, wincing briefly at how cold the stone floor was. Unsurprisingly, no, precisely as she had expected, Valtrois turned in her direction, protesting.

 

‘Thalyssra… you d-don’t need-’

 

Typical Valtrois, shrugging off help the very moment that she was not in absolute need of it. At least some things never changed from their shared times in Suramar. Since then, Thalyssra had learned to have an answer at the ready.

 

‘I assure you, this is the best for the both of us at the moment. Now I am the one unwilling to walk up a long flight of stairs in the middle of the night. And the floor upstairs is not more comfortable than this one, believe me.’

 

Valtrois gave an incomprehensible murmur of agreement. She settled against Thalyssra, resting her forehead in the crook of the other elf’s neck.

 

‘Are you comfortable?’ Thalyssra asked her after covering them both with the blanket.

 

A vague laugh came from Valtrois, marred with a strained cough and an involuntary twitch.

 

‘No…’ she softly said. ‘There's a… a bag of bones, lying against… ‘nother bag of bones. It’s not comfortable at all.’

 

They both started chuckling. Yes, their shared moments here were a far cry from the lavish bedrooms they had owned, and shared, in Suramar city. For a few minutes, the two were silent, relishing their shared warmth. Despite the odd smell of the blanket, which they had unearthed from the ruins a few days earlier, the remnants of Valtrois’ withering-induced fit and the general state they were in. Then Valtrois spoke again, softer in tone and more vulnerable.

 

‘I thought I was going to lose it… tonight.’

 

‘You were far gone,’ Thalyssra said in agreement. ‘But here we are, surviving another night. The outlander will return in the early morning with mana.’

 

‘ _Hmph._ They better hurry up.’

 

‘ _Shanar daloras,_ Valtrois! You should be more thankful to them.’

 

‘Are we starting to curse now, Thal? Is that not beneath us?’ The younger arcanist laughed softly. Her usual aloofness was already starting to seep back into her words. A sure sign that she was doing better.

 

Thalyssra drew back slightly, regarding Valtrois with a drawn-up eyebrow. She found the other woman’s eyes open, challenging hers.

 

‘I _am_ thankful. You know that. I’d just be _more_ thankful if they hurried up with the mana before we all start decaying.’

 

‘Withering, not decaying. We are not undead.’

 

‘Yet,’ Valtrois snorted. ‘Don’t know what I’d rather be, to be honest.’

 

‘Asleep?’ Thalyssra suggested. ‘I find it very advisable, at the moment.’

 

‘On this hard floor? I much prefer my own bed, in my exceptionally comfortable house - _urgh_ -’ A full-body shiver cut off Valtrois’ sentence, she scrunched up against Thalyssra, breathing in short, strained bursts.

 

Clasping her arms tightly around the other woman, the First Arcanist slowly rocked back and forth, ignoring how her hipbone shifted uncomfortably over the floor. She kept up her ministrations until Valtrois stilled and her breathing eased. Now unable to fall asleep, Thalyssra contemplated their fates, as she had done so many times before. Even with the bits of mana they received on a daily basis, their bodies were approaching their breaking point. Their fits got worse and longer by the day, casting anything beyond a simple ward and a low power blast would soon become impossible, she feared. Yet as Valtrois murmured something incomprehensible into her shoulder, Thalyssra felt a spark of hope. If they could survive this night together, they could make it to the next. They still had a bit of time. For all of her haughtiness, Valtrois was an avid learner, and not one to give up on her tasks. No, she would rather be found a withered alongside her sketches for the leyline tapping systems than slack off. While her working habits may have left Thalyssra concerned sometimes, as Valtrois was concerned for her and Oculeth, while the Chief Telemancer returned the favour for the both of them, it was the kind of persistence that the rebellion so desperately needed.

 

When Oculeth descended the winding staircase in the morning, fresh mana crystals in his hands, he found both elves tangled up in each other and the blanket. Apparently after such a fit, Valtrois has taken up snoring. He knelt down besides them and wanted to gently touch Thalyssra’s shoulder, when the First Arcanist stirred, sleeping as lightly as ever. She groggily regarded him for a few seconds before spotting the glowing contents of his hand. Barely restraining herself from grabbing them in the way a manasaber pounced on its prey, she instead held out a shaky hand. Valtrois had awoken as well. She sat upright and crossed her legs underneath herself, grabbing the blanket and clutching it around her shoulders.

 

Unlike Thalyssra, she did not hesitate to grab the mana crystals, plucking a few out of Oculeth’s hands and ravenously absorbing their energy. Too quickly, it seemed. She gagged and winced as a flare of faint blue light traveled up and down her darkened tattoos for a brief few moments.

 

‘ _Eugh,_ so bitter,’ she spat. ‘I will never get used to that.’

 

Distasteful as the mana crystals were, they fulfilled their purpose well enough. Valtrois soon jumped to her feet, discarding the blanket in favour of ascending the stairs in a light jog. Thalyssra watched her go with mild bemusement. Perhaps there would be time to deepen their relationship to the point where it had been, when they had not been exiled. Weeks of being stranded in the wilderness and struggling to survive, not to mention her grave injury or the withering process they both endured, had put a damper on their mutual affection. Yet now they had learnt to grow closer through their shared pain once more. She stood up, picking the blanket from the floor and vowing to wash it out later, since the smell was a lot more obvious when there were no urgent matters, like a withering lover, to attend to. Then she went after Valtrois, who had stopped in the middle of the flight of stairs and was smiling that cocky smile that Thalyssra knew all too well.

 

And the next time that she felt her body weaken, trembles worming their way up her arms, she did not abandon her work to crawl away in a secluded corner of Shal’aran. No, she laid her things aside calmly and made her way to Valtrois’ usual haunt down by the grid. The leyline expert could see, and most likely hear, her coming. When she had lumbered down the final steps, legs rapidly weakening as the first wave of pain made itself known, Valtrois caught her in her arms and guided her to sit down. Together, they would survive for another night, and another one after that.

**Author's Note:**

> Did I make them talk fancily enough?  
> Kudos? Comments, please? 
> 
>  
> 
> [My tumblr](https://brazenedminstrel.tumblr.com)  
> [My twitter](https://twitter.com/brazMinstrel)


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